A while ago I was asked to write a blog post about an author event that happened at a library I work at. The author was Rowan Coleman talking about her book “The Memory Book.” The blog never got created in the end so my post didn’t go up. But I was thinking about the main theme of my post: memories.

As a psych student I know all about the technical side of memories: how they are processed, stored, and retrieved. But there’s more to memories than the brain activities.

Memories are a person’s entire life. They are an important part of what makes up a person. J.K. Rowling mentioned memories very often and relied heavily on the ability to view other people’s memories in the Pensieve – the sixth book was mostly made up of viewing memories. She understood the importance of the memories. It was this simple act of learning about Tom Riddles’ past that allowed Harry to destroy him.

But what about in non-magical (muggle 🙂 ) worlds? Are memories simply something in a person’s mind and then lost forever when they are? No, of course not. We create our own Pensieves: in journals and photos, art and books, social media and blogs. All these things that we spend our lives documenting are safe and we can look back at, at any time.

So keep writing, capturing, and saving moments.